Walking around Fosdic Lake at Oakland Lake Park, today, had a bit of a Texas Twin Peaks feel.

When I left air-conditioned comfort, before noon, the sun was already heating Sunday to a HOT 97.4 with the Real Feel Heat Index feeling like 101.

The First Texas Twin Peaks thing was what I saw upon arrival at Oakland Lake Park's east parking lot. An elderly lady, dressed mostly in pink, was standing under the sparse shade of a small tree by the tennis courts.

The Old Lady in Pink was using a very crooked cane to support herself.

Walking across Fosdic Dam a guy who appeared to be a very overweight middle-aged man of Asian descent was being pulled by 4 yapping Chihuahuas on very long leashes. I said howdy to the dogs and the guy as I passed. The guy said something back to me in some Asian language. Maybe Chinese. Maybe Thai. Maybe Korean.

A short time after howdying the Chihuahuas, the most Texas Twin Peak thing of the walk rapidly ran toward me. That's right, you read correctly, a man was out jogging in the 101 degree HEAT. An elderly man with a very very well-worn face, wearing long pants, long-sleeved shirt, a headband, hat. And gloves.

Yes. Gloves. 101 degrees HOT and this guy was jogging while wearing gloves.

After the Gloved Jogger passed me, I got to the west side of Fosdic Dam and took several pictures of him, using the zoom. One of those pictures is at the top.

I then continued with my walk around Fosdic Lake. When I got back to the west side of the lake I saw the Gloved Jogger jogging once more across Fosdic Dam. I knew our paths would again intersect, so I prepared to shoot.

I was not prepared for what happened next. I snapped several pictures as the Gloved Jogger ran towards me. And then he stopped jogging, took a left and said something. He was some distance from me, so I was fairly certain he was not addressing me.

The person the Gloved Jogger was addressing was the Old Lady in Pink. The Gloved Jogger walked up to the Old Lady in Pink and took her hand, holding hands as they walked to their car. Apparently they are a couple.

She had stood there under the slight shade of that slight tree while the Gloved Jogger ran at least two times around Fosdic Lake. In 101 degree HEAT.

I was down at lake level, the parking lot is on a bluff above the lake. I watched the slow process of the Old Lady in Pink helping the Gloved Jogger remove most of his outerwear. This is how I learned he had a headband on under the hat. And a t-shirt under the long sleeved shirt. He did not take his pants off, so I don't know if he was wearing long underwear under them.

Prior to the Gloved Jogger, meeting up with the Old Lady in Pink, another jogger Texas Twin Peaked me. This guy had a very odd jogging style. With very skinny legs covered with tattoos. By his grizzled leathery face he appeared to be old. But I don't think he was. He had a youngish spiked haircut, dyed blond. And really creepy piercings all over his face.

And then there were the Fosdic Lake Ducks today.

I don't think the ducks like the HEAT.

Usually the birds that live on Fosdic Lake are skittish. But not today. Ducks floated in the shade of shoreline trees. And did not care that I was getting close to them.

I would have thought the Fosdic Lake Turtles would have been out and about, loving the HEAT. But I saw no turtles today. That is unusual.

According to my weather station, we have gone over 100 today. I don't know if it has gone over 100 at the official measuring station. I suspect it has, thus making this Day 30 in a Row of 100 or HOTTER in North Texas. Which would make this now the 2nd longest HOT streak in North Texas history. Twelve more days of 100 or more and we either tie or break the all time record of 42 HOT days in a row, set in 1980.

I was up before the sun this last day of July, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at the dawning of yet one more North Texas Sunday where the sun is scheduled to turn the temperature up over the 100 degree mark.

Again.

Yes, despite the forecast indicating Saturday would end the Days in a Row over 100 at 28, at 4:28 in the afternoon the official temperature measuring station at D/FW Airport's thermometer hit 100.

We are already heated to 84.7, well on our way to 100 and Day 30 in a row. The forecast for Monday is 106. For Wednesday we are scheduled to hit a new high for the year at 108.

Well, enough about the temperature. For now. It is time to go swimming.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

I am almost 100% we did not hit 100 today, thus ending the streak of 100 or over HOT days at 28 in a row.

But, look what we have to look forward to. 108 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meanwhile in Phoenix it is currently 109.3, with the Real Feel Heat Index making it feel like 114. Currently Phoenix is not benefiting from a lack of humidity due to being in a desert. It is monsoon season in the Valley of the Sun.

And then we have my old home location of the Flatlands of the Skagit Valley in the cool, wet state of Washington. Right now it is 71.8 with the Real Feel Heat Index making it feel like a balmy 76.

I do not remember the Heat Index having been invented yet when I lived in Washington. I do remember when 76 degrees felt really HOT to me.

Currently my air-conditioner is set at 80. That feels cool to me.

We can blame CatsPaw for availing me of way too much temperature information feeding my temperature fixation.

Not all that long ago the greatly respected (by few) governor of Texas, Rick Perry, came to Fort Worth where he engaged in a shootout with then Fort Worth Mayor, Mike Moncrief, in downtown Fort Worth.

Photos of this shootout in downtown Fort Worth were widely circulated.

This morning, thanks to world-wide Watch Dog, Don Young, I found out that the infamous photo of this infamous Texas governor and equally infamous Texas mayor, has made it to the Middle East and the newsrooms of Al Jazeera.

There's a right-wing politico-religious presence centred in the US, but with a global reach, engaging in similar practises, destroying religious and cultural artifacts as a key aspect of its ideology of "strategic level spiritual warfare" (SLSW).

Until recently a fringe evangelical movement, warned against as deviant, "spiritual warfare" is rapidly positioning itself within America's mainstream political right. It's well past time for political journalists to start covering what this movement is up to.

Known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a term coined by its intellectual godfather, C Peter Wagner, this movement surfaced in the 2008 campaign, with video of one of its most prominent practitioners, Kenyan witch-hunter Thomas Muthee, anointing Sarah Palin - but the mainstream media largely missed the real story on a number of counts.

This election cycle, the media will have another chance to get the story right. The NAR has made great strides since 2008, and already, NAR figures are deeply involved in organising for Texas Governor Rick Perry's August 6 prayer meeting, "The Response".

On July 12, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow did a segment highlighting some of their more bizarre claims in a series of video clips. These included Wagner saying that the Japanese stock market collapsed because the emperor had sex with a demon (the sun goddess), another leading NAR figure, John Benefiel, calling the Statue of Liberty "a demonic idol", and a third figure, Mike Bickle, calling Oprah Winfrey "a forerunner to the Harlot movement", or, as Maddow put it, a "harbinger of the antichrist".

_______________________________________________

It is sort of impressive that Al Jazeera has become such a respected news source, a lot more fair and balanced, or so it seems, than some, uh, western news organizations which claim to be fair and balanced. But aren't.

Coming up on 4 this Saturday afternoon it is looking like the 100 Degrees or more streak may come to an end today, what with it only 98.3 right now.

However, the clouds you see in the picture, taken around noon, have mostly disappeared. Without that cloud cover missing that HOT orb may be able to raise the temperature another 1.7 degrees and thus make this current HOT streak the 2nd longest HOT streak in North Texas history.

When I hit the Tandy Hills a bit earlier than the norm it was windy. The temperature was in the high 80s. The occasional blocking of the sun by the big white puffy things, was a nice relief, however it is very very humid. I assume the amped up humidity is courtesy of the remains of Tropical Storm Don. As are the big white puffy things.

Changing the subject from the Texas Temperature to cockroaches. This morning I exchanged emails with Betty Jo Bouvier and Carlotta Camano, neither of whom had personally met a cockroach of the insect kind.

I offered to mail Betty Jo and Carlotta some cockroaches so they could start up their own cockroach colony.

When Steve A learned of the plan to ship some cockroaches to Washington he advised me that I would need to supply a heat source if the roaches were to survive their trip to the Pacific Northwest. I assume Steve A assumed the cockroaches would be flying north and would get cold in the cargo hold.

Steve A also mentioned that cockroaches do not do well with cold and wet. I guess this explains why I never saw a cockroach til I moved to Texas. We have a lot of HOT and DRY in Texas, not all that much cold and wet.

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the last Saturday of July at a clear blue sky it would appear that Tropical Storm Don has passed us by.

Despite the prediction that we would not hit 100 yesterday, at the official temperature monitoring station for this zone, at D/FW Airport, we did hit 100, making Friday Day 28 in a row of 100 degrees or more.

The prediction for today is only 99. But, if we do hit 100, or more, I believe that would make today's Day 29 in a row the 2nd longest streak of 100 degree days in North Texas history.

Meanwhile, up in Washington, Betty Jo Bouvier reports that yesterday it got to 80 and she almost sweltered to a full swoon whilst working in her garden. This morning Betty Jo is being chilled to 53.5, while here in North Texas we are being chilled to 79.4.

Changing the subject from the HEAT to lunch, I am making pizza from scratch today. Carlotta Camano gave me the step by step directions as to how to do so. I believe the pizza dough will be the only step which may present me with some measure of difficulty.

Before I make pizza I am going swimming and then later will likely do some hill hiking, followed by Town Talk. Then pizza assembly.

Friday, July 29, 2011

My best friend with an IQ over 165, that being Gar the Texan, thinks I am temperature obsessed due to suffering from something called SSAD, with those SSAD initials being the short way of saying Summer Seasonally Affected Disorder.

Apparently I have had episodes where I have been unreasonably cranky, due to being overheated.

Gar the Texan has also made note of the fact that around 80% of my 20 to 30 bloggings a day seem to have something to do with the temperature.

Well, the thing is, the temperature is a HOT topic. I just realized a couple minutes ago that my Google AdSense revenue has already broken the monthly revenue record, with 2 days to go in July.

Now, I know Gar the Texan, with the advantage of his Ultra IQ, does better than I do with the pertinent blogging subjects. I imagine he has brought in a small fortune with his search for the perfect German beer made in America. And his parenting adventures.

Now, switching the subject from Gar the Texan and his parenting adventures, back to the temperature. I do not believe we hit the 100 mark today. If that is the case, the streak is over, with the 2011 streak being, I think, the 3rd longest in North Texas history, as measured at the official station at D/FW Airport.

If we don't get to 100 on Saturday, apparently a new streak of 100 degree days will begin on Sunday, with this coming Tuesday currently scheduled to be heated to a HOT 106.

We are currently scheduled to only get to 97 tomorrow. A 2 degree reduction from the previous prediction. Earlier I saw some big cumulus clouds that I assumed were due to Tropical Storm Don. But those clouds currently do not seem to be increasing.

Even so, I suspect there may be some thunderbolts jolting me in a few hours.

In the meantime I'm going with Gar the Texan to help in his quest to find an American Hefeweizen beer that is at a German quality level. This is an important project. It would be much easier if we were up in Washington doing this search, what with Washington's many brewpubs. For a state where the people seem to like their beer drinking, there seems to be a serious brewpub shortage in Texas.

So far it does not appear that Tropical Storm Don has arrived. But, for some reason the rain chance has been raised 10 points to 30%.

I think I remember what rain feels like.

I had a rough night with N. Somnia last night. It is hard to sleep with N. Somnia. During the short sleeping bouts very disturbing nightmares disturbed me, of which I remember nothing except for finding them disturbing.

A long bout in the pool seemed to have perked me up.

Before noon I went to Oakland Lake Park, again, to walk around Fosdic Lake, again. It was 94 degrees when I left air-conditioned comfort. It was 96.5 upon my return to air-conditioned comfort, with the Real Feel Heat Index feeling like 101.

The browned grass of Oakland Lake Park reminded me of Eastern Washington today. That is the browned grass in the picture, looking west at a stand of trees in front of Fosdic Lake.

When I was a kid I was always fascinated by the brown hills of Eastern Washington. Going from the green, west side of the Cascades, to a totally different climate and topography on the east side.

It was not til I was 12 years old that I traveled far enough from Washington to discover that those brown type hills cover a lot of America, though Washington's version, with its rolling hills and coulees, is more scenic than some. That, and much of the brown has had green added to it, with irrigation allowing the growing of apples, peaches, apricots, grapes, nectarines, cherries, wheat, corn, hops and other stuff I'm likely forgetting.

The last time I saw the brown hills of Eastern Washington was the summer of 2001. We went on a fruit run to the Wenatchee zone with a stop in Leavenworth on the way. In the years since I moved to Texas, the Walla Walla zone has become a wine producing mecca. When I lived in Washington the agricultural product Walla Wallas was known for were its Walla Walla Sweet Onions.

I'm in the mood for a Washington visit. I think cherry season may be over. But, blackberries should soon be ripe for the free picking.

Looking skyward through the bars of my prison patio cell on the last Friday of July you can see the sky is currently clear of any clouds.

Apparently Tropical Storm Don went a more westerly direction than expected, which apparently makes it less likely we will see any rain in North Texas.

But, even without as much incoming Tropical Storm Don, the predicted high for Friday has been been lowered to 99, which, if that happens, today ends our 100 degrees of more streak.

On a totally non-HEAT related subject. Months ago a Fort Worth pitbull named Mimi was in the news. Mimi was accused of being a biter. Mimi's owner, Steven Woods generated a lot of sympathy and money, with his false tale of being a war vet and Mimi being innocent.

Well. Mimi is behind bars again. A pregnant lady, her husband and kid in a stroller were walking in Fort Worth's Lake Como Park when they were accosted by two pitbulls, one of whom was Mimi. The husband got the dogs to chase him, then was attacked by the male, which the husband stabbed with a knife, causing both dogs to run away.

Woods admitted both dogs were his.

Methinks it is now time to remove all of Woods' dogs from his possession.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

It was only 97 degrees when I walked around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park today, with that 97 degrees supposedly feeling like 101.

However, the water in Fosdic Lake seems to have a cooling effect on the air surrounding it, particularly when you walk across Fosdic Dam, with the wind blowing across the lake from the south with gusts to 20 mph.

I think that was a blue heron I saw today on the east side of Fosdic Lake. The bird and the water are sort of the same shade of blue.

The cold-like symptoms that were vexing me bad yesterday seem to have abated. It pleases me when a bad thing abates.

Speaking of bad things abating. If the current prediction comes true, on Saturday we will not be heated to 100 degrees or above in drought stricken, oven baked North Texas. And rain is slightly in the forecast for tonight, Friday and Saturday, along with a chance of T-Storms, courtesy of incoming Tropical Storm Don.

The last Thursday of July is starting off cooled to a not too chilly 82 degrees, scheduled to hit a high of 103.

Day after day the water in the pool is warmer than the day before.

When we hit 103 today it will be the 27th day in a row of a triple digit high.

The temperature prediction for Friday is 101.

But Saturday, that being the day that our current North Texas 100 degree streak would tie for 2nd, is in danger of not happening due to Tropical Storm Don Young.

Tropical Storm Don Young is currently north of Cozumel, Mexico, heading west/northwest towards South Texas. If Don Young reaches the Texas coast late Friday or early Saturday its clouds could cause a temperature drop in North Texas.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A few summers ago I did have a bad allergy bout that I thought was a cold at first.

That may be what I have going on now. An allergic reaction to something.

Or I may have a cold. I do not believe I have ever had a cold in summer before. With the temperature over 100 every day it would seem that cold viruses would be withered from the heat, just like everything else.

Right now, at a few minutes after 5, we are being heated to 104.7 degrees HOT. A full blown cold in these HOT temperatures would be a miserable thing, I would think.

My symptoms are a slightly sore throat, a burning sensation in my nasal passages, slight eye irritation and an overall crankiness that is at a higher level of crankiness than my usual ongoing crankiness.

Could Fort Worth's bad air pollution and me exposing myself to it, daily, be what's causing the burning sensations? Anyone else having these symptoms?

I remember having a sore throat when I flew up to Washington in July of 2008, thinking it was caused by the air that I breathe here and that it would quickly get better breathing Washington's much cleaner air. But, it took a week for the cleaner air to clear up the sore throat.

Maybe I am just still recovering from Saturday night's saloon hopping with Elsie Hotpepper. Lord knows a night with Elsie Hotpepper exposes one to a lot of unexpected toxins.

In the picture I am on top of Mount Tandy, today around noon. As you can see I discovered a new way of taking a picture of myself by aiming the camera at one of my vehicular transport's windows.

That would be the Tandy Tower, aka the Fort Worth Space Needle, behind my right shoulder.

When I exited air-conditioned comfort today the outdoor air was heated to just a couple degrees under 100. The Real Feel Heat Index was supposed to be making it feel like 104.

However, a steady wind seemed to be introducing a bit of Wind Chill Factor to the Real Feel Heat Index on today's Tandy Hills.

Currently we are heated to 102.4 with a Real Feel Heat Index of 107. Right now up in my old home zone, the Skagit Valley of Washington, it is 64.2.

I believe my mom and dad are up in Washington right now. This would be their first return in 2 years. I have not been back in Washington for 3 years. Mom and dad have met their new grandson, David, previously. I think little David has flown down to Phoenix at least twice to visit them. Mom and dad will likely be visiting Tacoma to see David and their new twin grandbabies, Ruby Jean and Theo John.

Just a sec, I will go check the Blue & Max Blog to see if my mom and dad have been seen by the poodles.

Well. Blue & Max have pictures of David's visit to Phoenix. I know mom and dad's plan was to take off for Washington the morning that David was flying back north. Which must mean mom & dad are either on the road or have made it up to Washington. I guess I could make a call and get to the bottom of this mystery.

I can't tell from the picture if David is at my mom and dad's place in Sun Lake or my sister's in Chandler. The next two pictures I can tell are at my sister's house.

On the left that is my nephew Christopher Jay, more often known as CJ, with his cousin, my nephew, David.

That would be CJ on the left, David in the middle and, on the right, CJ's little brother, JR, Jeremy Ryan, my youngest nephew, until David and Theo showed up, in their mom and dad's backyard, blowing bubbles.

Seeing pictures of my nephews has me feeling a bit melancholy. JR was 13 when I moved to Texas. I remember Jeremy's mom telling me that me being gone was going to be hard on JR, because he liked to call me up when he had a day off of school and get me to do something fun. Often this involved a long bike ride.

When I moved to Texas the last month of 1998 the idea of CJ and JR and their mom and dad moving to Arizona was not on the radar screen.

I remember flying up for a family reunion in July of 2002 and my brother-in-law taking me aside to tell me about the possibility of moving to Arizona, wanting me to help get my sister to realize it could be a good thing to make a drastic move. I think within a year of moving to Arizona my sister came around to thinking it was a good thing.

I would not mind moving to the Phoenix zone. Currently it is only 101.7 in Phoenix. That is way cooler than the current temperature in my location of 103.4, warming up a little since I started writing this blogging.

The 27th day of July has dawned with a clear sky, near as I can tell. Currently the outdoors in my location is being heated to 83.6 degrees.

That liquid location you see in the picture is looking particularly inviting this morning.

We broke another temperature record yesterday. Again it was the morning low. A record high of 86 for the morning low. The highest morning low ever recorded at the official National Weather Service Dallas/Fort Worth temperature monitoring station.

In these HOT parts of America we keep a Top 10 list of days in a row of triple digit days. We are now tied with 1952 at #3 on the Top 10 list. If the current predictions turn out to be correct, on Saturday we will be at #2 on the Top 10 list at 29 days in a row of 100 or HOTTER.

To reach the coveted #1 position, after Saturday we will need 13 more HOT days to reach the record 42 days in a row of 100 or HOTTER set in 1980.

August of 1980 was the first time I was ever in Fort Worth. I had driven here in a Toyota without A/C. I remember the HEAT was totally unbearable. I did not understand how people could live in such a place. And now, 31 years later, I totally understand how people can live in such a place.

Because I am one of them. About to go swimming in the HEAT and later likely to go hiking in the HEAT.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

That is Amy Winehouse in the picture. Amy Winehouse has been in the news lately due to becoming the latest member of what is known as "The 27 Club."

Amy Winehouse has been a hot mess for quite some time. Drug problems and re-hab.

The only Amy Winehouse song of which I was aware was called "Rehab."

I had had no intention of mentioning Amy Winehouse in the blogging mode.

And then this morning I was reading a blogging about Amy Winehouse's tragic demise and was sort of appalled at what I was reading.

I won't be specific as to who the blogger is, due to not wanting to embarrass him. Suffice to say the blogger is a West Texas boy, prone to odd random ramblings. There have been incidents in the past where this particular blogger blogs after consuming adult beverages, with embarrassing results. This may have been what caused this particular blogging's disturbingness.

I'll copy and paste a few paragraphs of the disturbing verbiage....

Interestingly, she died at the age of 27 which puts her in an increasingly non-unique category of musicians. They've even got a name, "The 27 Club". The famous members of the club are, of course, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain.

I'm not much on disparaging dead people. Of the four artists listed above, Kurt was the only one I didn't care for. So today, on the Russ Martin Show, when a caller called in adamantly complaining that people were going to put Amy Winehouse on a level with Kurt, it irritated me to the point that I felt the need to blog.

His complaint was the that her music sucked, she only had two albums out and she had no influence. Not like Kurt who seemed to have some sort of godlike status in this deranged moronic stupid ass listeners brainless opinion.

First, he needs to somehow develop an IQ. Then, he needs to learn to read. Then, he needs to learn the difference between fact and opinion.

Of course, the most disheartening part was that Russ let him on the air and didn't degrade him. He is normally very good at degrading morons. I was mostly disappointed that Russ agreed with the stupidity. It was very disappointing.

Where do I start? First off, you really should not be making disparaging remarks about a "listeners brainless opinion" when you are too dumb to insert an apostrophe between the "r" and "s" of "listeners."

So, this blogger is listening to a radio talk show and gets irritated because someone calls in to opine that he felt Amy Winehouse did not belong in the sainted "27 Club."

And then the blogger is further upset because the show's host, some guy named Russ Martin, agrees with the caller.

Due to the caller having a different opinion than the blogger the blogger feels the caller needs to develop an IQ. And learn to read. And learn the difference between fact and opinion.

Well, first off, one does not develop ones IQ. What made the blogger think the caller could not read? And that the caller did not know the difference between fact and opinion?

It seems to me the blogger does not know the difference between fact and opinion and maybe should avail himself of some of that IQ development he seems to think exists.

It sounds to me as if the caller was verbalizing his opinion about something he felt passionate about. That happens a lot on radio talk shows.

This particular blogger seems to frequently focus on what he perceives to be stupid. In his two bloggings today he used the word "stupid" an awful lot of times.

And what does it mean to be "not much on disparaging dead people?" Is this some sort of sterling character trait? I've never known anyone who did any disparaging of dead people.

Anyway, like I said, I don't know if this particular blogging was caused by too many adult libations, low blood sugar, a deluded self-view as the smartest man on the planet or just a deranged moronic stupid ass brainless opinion.

I had to be in Pantego around noon. So on the way to Pantego I stopped at Veterans Park in Arlington for my daily HOT walk.

The Veterans Park grass has turned brown since my last visit. Much of the Veterans Park vegetation seemed to be doing a bit of wilting.

As you can see by looking at the sky, in the picture, clouds continue to do some sun blockage.

The partial sun blockage has not brought any cooling relief.

According to my temperature source we have once again gone over 100 degrees. I do not know if the official temperature monitoring station at D/FW Airport has officially deemed this Tuesday our 25th day in a row of 100 or higher.

What I do know is currently the forecast for the next 6 days is for each of them to get heated to 100 degrees or more.

Looking skyward through the bars of my patio prison cell on this last Tuesday of July it appears there are clouds between me and the sun.

However, even with this sun blockage, somehow that HOT overhead orb has managed to heat the air this morning to 87.2, according to my Weather Underground temperature source.

Yesterday we broke the temperature record with the low for the day being a HOT 85.

If we hit 100 again today it will be the 25th day in a row of 100 or HOTTER.

This morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram announced a Summer Heat Streak Contest. The person who correctly predicts the day the 100-degree streak, as recorded at D/FW Airport, ends, will win 4 tickets to the NRH20 Waterpark in North Richland Hills.

With all these clouds my prediction is the 100-degree streak ends today. I am never correct with these type predictions.

I am not going swimming this morning. My one longtime reader may remember that Tuesday is pool treatment day.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Coming up on 5 on July 25 we are currently heated to 105 at my location in blistering HOT Texas.

The wind is blowing less than 5 mph.

The slight wind is not enough to bring on the Wind Chill Factor, instead the humidity has the Real Feel Heat Index feeling like 109.

In my current location a mechanical temperature altering device is chilling the air to somewhere in the 80 degree zone.

I remember 3 years ago today, shivering up in Tacoma. I asked if I could move to the upstairs loft, which was way warmer than the frigid basement I'd been being very cold in. The upstairs loft had 2 high tech A/C units. The A/C unit's digital thermometer indicated the temperature in the loft was 82.

The occupants in the house, in which I was incarcerated, could not understand that, to me, 82 degrees felt cool.

Far from shy, Leos can be quite opinionated, and their idealism is contagious––they are known for inspiring others. Starting your own blog where you can express yourself openly would be the perfect creative outlet for you. If you're not into writing, then try an acting class. Your flair for the dramatic makes you born for the stage.

Next month, in the Leo time of the year, my therapist's birthday and mine are one day apart.

As usual, with silly Horoscope stuff, this Horoscope stuff was really way off.

Both my therapist and I are very shy. Neither of us is at all opinionated. My therapist and I are not contagious. We are not very inspirational. We do both have blogs, but I can't see where they are a perfect creative outlet for either of us. My therapist does have a slight flair for the dramatic, unlike me and my very dull lack of any sort of flair.

It was in the high 90s when I hit the HOT Tandy Hills today, at noon. Currently, coming up on 3 in the afternoon it is 104.

There was only a slight wind blowing on the hills today, yet I did not have the overheating problem I encountered on Saturday.

I do not know, for sure, what made today so much more pleasant. Maybe my electrolytes were in balance, today, due to the drinking concoction I made in my Vita-Mix this morning consisting of all sorts of good stuff I got at Town Talk, like frozen Acai Berries, soy milk, frozen Dole strawberry/banana mix, lime juice, pineapple juice and likely some other good superfood stuff I'm forgetting.

I seem to hardly go a week without finding a new Guerrilla Art Installation on the Tandy Hills. I'm not sure if that is what I found today. Below the now dry Tandy Falls there were dozens of business cards scattered about.

The business cards showed no water damage. Which indicates they did not get flushed over Tandy Falls by the recent broken water main flood.

The business cards were for a business called PEBE J KIDS INC., with the personal name on these cards being Irene Montalvo.

Why would someone throw dozens of business cards over the Tandy Falls escarpment?

On a totally different note.

I was really happy upon returning to my computer and checking my email to see that Gail Galtex got a really good Groupon deal for going wakeboarding at the Cowtown Wakepark and invited me to go do some wakeboarding, with GG, in the polluted Trinity River water. Something I have long dreamed of doing.

Now, who is going to solve the Tandy Hills Irene Montalvo business card mystery while I go wakeboarding?

I don't think anyone is immune to the occasional typographical error. However, my personal trend line for typos seems to have the typo incidents increasing.

Just minutes ago I caught a real bad one that totally changed the meaning of the sentence...

An intervention where the parents are shown who to properly feed their kids.

I know I don't catch all my typos. I almost did not catch the above one.

The word "how" seems to be a frequent pitfall for me. When intending to type "how" I have typed "who", "would" and "wood".

Awhile back I saw a memorable typo related line on the Connie Dees Facebook page, saying, "THEY'RE going THERE with THEIR friends. It's called grammar, use it."

Grammar errors are a different woe than typos. However, what may appear to be a grammar error might actually be a typo. I know I've quickly typed "your" when I mean "you're" a time or two. Quickly catching the error.

I have experienced people who do not understand that "your" is a possessive pronoun and that "you" and "are" can be contracted as "you're". When these types type "Your driving me crazy" it is not a typo, it is a grammar error born of ignorance or laziness or both.

Wikipedia has an article titled "Typographical error." The first paragraph of the Wikipedia article is pretty much a definition of typos...

A typographical error (often shortened to typo) is a mistake made in, originally, the manual type-setting (typography) of printed material, or more recently, the typing process. The term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger, but usually excludes errors of ignorance, such as spelling errors. Before the arrival of printing, the "copyist's mistake" or "scribal error" was the equivalent for manuscripts. Most typos involve simple duplication, omission, transposition, or substitution of a small number of characters.

When I have a typo escape my attention, making it to the point of being read by others, I have a few kind people who take pity on my mistakes and point them out to me. Betty Jo Bouvier and Elsie Hotpepper are both quite helpful in the typo spotting department.

UPDATE: I thought I'd done a careful job of proofreading this particular blogging to make sure there were no typos. However. Elsie Hotpepper found a typo. I'd typed "Grammar errors a different woe than typos." I was missing a word, with that word being "are". I really do not like my chronic typo woe.

I am up before the sun, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at the last Monday morning of July.

The outdoor air is currently chilled to 83.4 degrees. A little warmer than my interior artificially chilled air temperature.

We are currently scheduled to be heated to a HOT 104 today.

The morning, with this morning being the morning of July 25, I realized it has been 3 years and 5 days since I flew up to Seattle on July 20, 2008.

For an entire month.

I realized about one week in to that month that I'd made a BIG mistake in scheduling staying for an entire month. When I finally escaped, August 20, it was with great relief when the airplane lifted off the ground and headed south. I said at the time I would not return for at least 10 years. But 3 years have been enough to slightly fade the bad memory of the bad month of 2008.

I think I'm again ready for a visit to the Pacific Northwest. For a relatively relative free visit.

But. Before I do that I think I will go swimming, now that the sun has finally gotten around to doing its daily illumination duties.

104.4 degrees at the mid afternoon mark this HOT Sunday in Texas. With the Real Feel Heat Index knocking off .4 of a degree, making that 104.4 feel like only 104. The chilling miracle of what a 1.0 mph wind can deliver.

The air-conditioner seldom seems to take a break.

Speaking of using a lot of electricity.

Earlier today I blogged about my incoming new neighbor. That being another Chesapeake Energy drilling operation.

Several years ago, early on in the era of Chesapeake Energy annoying so many Texans with their heavy-handed tactics, if you blogged about Chesapeake. your blogging would get hit by boilerplate comments, of the really dumbly overbearing sort, from Chesapeake propaganda shills.

The shill propaganda seems to have improved. Slightly. Below is a comment made by someone calling him, or herself, "jrobinson," regarding my blogging about Chesapeake's messy new operation in my neighborhood....

"Poke a hole"?

Maybe... drilling for gas to make your life easier by providing cheaper energy?

What you really wanted was a Sprouts or ALDI... which you would find useful. But a source of energy - which is important to both those things as well as everything else that supports your life - is a "no go"?

I don't believe I've ever said I had anything against drilling for gas to make my life easier.

But, somehow I don't consider polluting water supplies, using a lot of water during a drought, sending cancer causing chemicals into the air, not doing everything possible to reduce emissions, making a lot of noise and sending a lot of dust and dirt into the air, all that supportive of the quality of my life.

An ALDI or Sprouts walking distance from my abode would save me a lot of gas.

For several weeks I've been wondering what was going on on the old, long abandoned Super Wal-Mart parking lot I drive by almost every day.

It looked like a construction site was being prepared.

I was hoping for a Sprouts Farmers Market or an ALDI.

Yesterday I drove by the "construction" site and learned what is actually going on.

Chesapeake Energy wants to poke a hole in the ground in this location, making a lot of noise and generating a lot of dust. As you can see, in the background of the picture of the Chesapeake public hearing notification sign, this proposed drilling site is adjacent to an apartment complex.

Walking behind the Chesapeake Energy sign you can see that the proposed drilling location is across the street from some retail businesses. Like Albertsons and the Chinese Super Bowl Buffet.

Chesapeake Energy has not begun the drilling process and yet it is already trashing up the neighborhood. The chain link fence around the proposed drilling site juts out onto the sidewalk, creating walking hazards.

The chain link fence acts as a net, catching litter, stopping it from blowing into oblivion. Or the Trinity River.

I was told by the person who runs the affected apartment complex that one of its residents is collecting signatures on a petition asking that the permit be denied. I told the person who runs the affected apartment complex that I did not think anything could stop Chesapeake Energy from poking a hole anywhere it wanted to poke in Fort Worth.

As you can see, looking out my primary viewing portal on the outdoor world, I am up early this next to last Sunday of July.

July 24 is the Goober Twin's birthday. Big Ed and Wally are at least 39 years old today. Maybe older.

Yesterday I saw disturbing evidence that something unwanted is moving into my neighborhood. Later this morning I will go get some photographic evidence of the incoming intruder.

This morning we are already heated to 83.7, heading to a scheduled high of 103. I do not know how many days in a row over 100 we've been burned with, currently, here in North Texas. Or how close we are to breaking the record for number of 100 degree days in a row.

The sun has now completed its daily morning illumination task. Which means it is now time to go swimming.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

When I exited my vehicle on top of Mount Tandy today around noon I was pleased to be hit with a nice strong gust of cooling wind.

However, the wind was being real fickle. By the time I got to the location in the picture, that being Lost Sunglasses Ridge, I was not having myself my usual HOT time.

I cut the hiking slightly short and made a quick trip to the Town Talk cooler.

There was no new flooding in the Tandy Hills today.

I think I may be overdoing the swimming in the morning. It is easy to do.

Speaking of swimming. I'd not heard from Elsie Hotpepper for a couple days. And then my phone rang whilst I was in line at Town Talk. It was Elsie. She claimed to be calling from Las Vegas, from Mandalay Bay. Specifically from the Mandalay Bay's adult pool's lazy river.

I have been to Mandalay Bay. I do not remember a lazy river in the adult pool section. I do remember seeing the most toplessness to hit my eyes since I'd been at Vancouver's infamous Wreck Nude Beach, years before.

I told Elsie Hotpepper I'd need photo proof of her floating in the Mandalay Bay lazy river. So far that proof has not arrived.

Friday, July 22, 2011

When I hit the Tandy Hills today, around noon, the temperature was 92.7. With a semi-strong wind blowing. Which had a nice semi-cooling effect.

Today I took the north junction option on the trail down Mount Tandy. This route takes me over Tandy Falls.

I was quite surprised today, in the midst of the Great North Texas Drought, to see more water roaring over Tandy Falls than I've ever seen before.

By the time I made it to where the Tandy Highway crosses the Tandy River the flood had somewhat subsided. I could see, by where the high water mark had been, that I would likely not have been able to make the crossing at that point in time when the flood was at its most perilous.

There have been full page ads in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from the Lawn Whisperer, of late, advising locals not to over water their lawns. That same so-called "newspaper," this morning, had an article about the epidemic of broken water mains wasting water all over Fort Worth, at a leaking level greater than other Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex city's leak levels.

The Star-Telegram article indicated that the culprit behind the broken water pipe epidemic is the day after day HEAT wreaking havoc with the ground. No mention was made of the possibility that the epidemic of seismic testing might be a contributor to the broken pipe epidemic by also wreaking havoc with the ground.

Speaking of seismic testing. The seismic testing cables and equipment have now been removed from Mount Tandy. In their place a new piece of Tandy Hills Guerrilla Art has been installed.

I think I will call this work of Guerrilla Art "Tandy Tower."

If you look closely at the picture of "Tandy Tower" you can see part of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, peaking out above "Tandy Tower."

I wonder how many gallons of water were wasted today falling over Tandy Falls? It was a very high volume of water.

I wonder what the Lawn Whisperer would say about such waste?

I wonder if all the water wasted on all the lawns in Fort Worth, during the entire lawn watering season, add up to what was lost over Tandy Falls today?

The past week Fort Worth has been being mentioned in the Pacific Northwest's TV News and Newspapers.

Due to a toilet paper accident.

A 24 year old man from Fort Worth, named Mahmoud Salameh, was hauling a load of toilet paper in Idaho, on U.S. Highway 12, along the Lochsa River, near the Montana border, slightly south of the Idaho panhandle, when he lost control on a tight turn.

The semi-trailer crashed through a guardrail and flipped over, spilling its load of 64,000 pounds of mega-rolls of toilet paper into the river.

An Idaho company, named Miles Towing, has been tasked with removing the giant toilet paper rolls from the river.

The Fort Worth driver survived the accident and was taken to Missoula's Community Medical Center. Salameh got a ticket for inattentive driving and for not purchasing a permit to haul a 53-foot trailer.

I do not know if this incident is the worst case ever of a Texan littering a non-Texas river.

As you can see via the headless shadow of the skinny dipping skinny man the skinny man is up way before the sun on this 22nd day of July.

The skinny dipping skinny man has no clue what the temperature is. All he knows is it felt very pleasant when he stepped outside.

Reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this morning I learned that water pipes are breaking all over Fort Worth, at a pace out pacing other North Texas towns.

The Star-Telegram article said the HEAT is the cause of the water pipe breaks. Others, elsewhere, have claimed that some of the water pipe breaking is due to Barnett Shale seismic testing shaking the ground and people's nerves. No mention was made in the Star-Telegram article about seismic testing being a possible reason why Fort Worth is leaking way more than other Texas towns.

A Dallas lawyer, who used to be a Baptist minister, before he got the call of the law, had an arrest warrant issued for him on Wednesday due to the former preacher's murder of a couple of really big alligators that he found and killed on the Trinity River in Leon County about 145 miles southeast of Fort Worth.

The lawyer's name is Levi McCathern II. The arrest warrants were for the lawyer and his 3 guides. The lawyer's lawyer says McCathern will fight the charge, claiming McCathern performed a public service.

Was McCathern trying to do what little he could to make the Trinity River safe from gators for those Rockin' the River Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Happy Hour Inner Tube Floaters who bravely get in the Trinity River a couple times a month? On Thursdays.

I am going to go swimming now and try not to think about 13 foot long alligators in the pool.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Most days I seem to find myself being fairly productive in various ways. Then there are other days, days that don't happen all that often, when I do not seem to be very productive.

This has been one of those very unproductive days. So far.

I had a long list of things I was going to do today. I've only done two things on the list.

And then this afternoon tragedy struck. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my number one interest is the temperature. I monitor the temperature more religiously than I monitor anything else.

Around 2 this afternoon my Flock browser informed me there was an update to the Forecastfox Weather Plug-in. I figured this must be some sort of necessary improvement, so I clicked to do the update.

About 5 seconds later the Forecastfox Weather Plug-in was generating a connection error message. I tried all sorts of things to fix it. Uninstall, re-install, delete the temporary Internet files.

Then I Googled "Forecastfox Weather connection error" to learn I was not the only person vexed by this problem.

Around 4 I needed to get some outdoor action. I had to check the temperature via a more primitive means than I have grown used to, to learn it was 100 degrees.

I decided to to go Village Creek Natural Historic Area. I was pleasantly surprised at how much more pleasant 100 degrees is in the late afternoon with long shady shadows and a good breeze blowing.

A few things have always perplexed me about the Village Creek Natural Area. It's the natural part. Like the picture above. That is a part of the natural area where the paved trail crosses under power lines, with a broad swatch cleared through the natural trees for the power lines. The broad swatch creates a sort of tree canyon effect. That really is not very natural.

And then there is all that pavement. Not very natural.

And the viewing platform that looks out over the dried up Village Creek Bayou. The deck is made from planks made out of recycled plastic bags.

Anyway, I miss looking at the lower right hand corner of my browser and seeing the temperature. I think I'm experiencing some sort of temperature information withdrawal.

The 21st morning of July is dawning with yet one more clear blue sky morning in North Texas.

The aquamarine colored pool is looking particularly inviting this morning. The only thing not all that inviting about the pool is it is starting to be not all that refreshing to take a dip in it, due to the fact that the temperature of the water is warmer than the morning air, which this morning is chilled to 82 degrees.

We are currently scheduled to reach a high of 101 today, with the Real Feel Heat Index feeling like 105.

I do not know if I will make it to any HOT hill hiking today. I have a doctor's appointment in Hurst at 10 this morning.

Speaking of getting an injection. We had an execution last night down in Huntsville. A guy named Mark Stroman was put permanently to sleep. This particular idiot went on a Dallas convenience store killing spree in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, killing 2 and injuring 1. He thought he was targeting people of Middle Eastern descent, however the victims were all from South Asia.

The final Space Shuttle touched down yesterday. Atlantis made the final landing. It seems like only yesterday I watched the first Space Shuttle launch. And now it is 30 years later.

Time flies at a speed that is sort of depressing if you think about it.

I think I will go swimming now and try not to think about time flying.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

A few minutes ago incoming email from one of my Tacoma Informants included the photo you see here. The TI claimed this is a recent photo of Fubbo the Hut.

I do see the resemblance, but I am almost 100% this is not actually Fubbo the Hut.

For one thing, I've not heard anything about Fubbo being bald.

Fubbo the Hut has recently been caught, again, doing her creepy stalking thing. I think just about anyone on the planet would empathize with how unsettling it would be to have something that looks like Fubbo the Hut stalking them.

What the sad-looking creature in the photo actually is, is a Blobfish. Now, I can clearly see how one might use the word "Blobfish" to refer to Fubbo the Hut. But a Blobfish is actually a real fish.

Blobfish float along the ocean floor off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania, surviving by eating whatever drifts in front of it.

Okay, that is one more eerie similarity to Fubbo the Hut, who also eats whatever drifts in front of it.

It was only 86 when I left my abode to head west to the Tandy Hills. Three hours later it is 10 degrees hotter, at 96, with a Real Feel Heat Index of 102.

As you can see, in the picture, looking west, from the Tandy Hills, at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, today we have some sunblocking going on in the form of big white clouds.

I had myself an annoying morning of frustrating annoyance. Mostly all self-inflicted. The Tandy Hills Sanatorium restored my peaceful balance.

My morning annoyance was caused by Big Ed's website. For awhile now Big Ed had been asking me to update his website and get rid of stuff no longer relevant, like Chambers of Commerce, Balloon Festivals, Toastmasters and some strange thing called StuGurCo.

Big Ed's website was an antique, made in 2001, using the now never-used framed method. I figured I'd just take the main frame page and turn it into the index page. That took all of 2 minutes. And then the fun began. When I uploaded the new index page and went to test it, it would not load. Instead it overheated my computer, hanging it up.

Eventually I got back control of the computer. Two hours later I realized code for the framed page remained, so I took all of a minute to make a new page, and pasted in the sparse info that is on Big Ed's website's now bare homepage.

And now this afternoon I found out Betty Jo Bouvier is sending Honey Lulu here so I can put her in bootcamp of hiking the Tandy Hills and swimming. That should be very interesting.....